A FAMILY TORN IN
A NAMIBIAN father, whose newborn twin girls are stuck in South Africa, has accused his government of blatantly refusing to acknowledge a legal document issued by South Africa.
Dr Phillip Lühl and his Mexican husband Guillermo Delgado had the joy of the birth of their twin daughters marred by what they say is the Namibian government’s refusal to issue travel permits to the newborns.
Now Lühl, who arrived in South Africa on March 1, and the twins, now six weeks old, are stuck in Joburg. Namibian authorities want Lühl to show genetic proof he is the father before providing them with travel documents, but he argues there is neither a basis in Namibian law nor in the Constitution that parentage is defined by genetic link.
“We rejected the notion that a genetic link or DNA test will prove my parentage because of the fact that one of us has to have a genetic link. It doesn't mean that one of us is a parent, we are both parents legally,” he said.
While the South African surrogacy process requires a genetic link, Lühl argues that demanding such proof discriminates against the couple because they are both parents. The matter was challenged in a Namibian court in November 2019 and is still pending.
Thandeka Chauke, who heads the Statelessness Project Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme of Lawyers for Human Rights, said the South African government has done their part by
MORE than a year after Muhammed Nagdee was brutally murdered, set alight and then dumped in the veld, his suspected killers are walking free.
The three suspects have not been arrested for the crime because DNA samples that could assist in solving the case sit in a police laboratory, untested.
And, in the meantime, the suspects have been let out on bail after the magistrate set the case aside, as they await the results of the DNA analysis.
The family of the well-known director ensuring the births have been registered and the twins have been issued birth certificates.
Chauke added that while the Namibian government has sole authority over the country’s borders and ports of entry, and determines who is admitted entry and how, it is violating the twins’ constitutional rights to citizenship. She stressed that the birth certificates of the children are prima facie evidence of their parentage and the requirement for DNA tests to prove parentage or biological link to their Namibian father and TV producer is not alone because tens of thousands of DNA samples have piled up at the country’s National Forensic Laboratories in Pretoria.
The extent of this backlog was recently revealed when Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko, told Parliament that the backlog of forensic cases that had to be processed stood at 149391 on March 4.
Mazibuko told Parliament that as of March 4, only 35 quantification sets had been received by the lab in Pretoria. is therefore “arbitrary”.
“The Namibian government’s refusal to recognise the twins as Namibian citizens is in violation of the children’s constitutional rights to citizenship, dignity and family life. It further violates the children’s rights in terms of international human rights treaties like the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The Namibian government’s refusal to confirm their Namibian citizenship places them at risk of statelessness. This can have severe
These sets are used in conducting forensic investigations and preparing reports.
To Gareth Newham, the head of the Justice and Violence Prevention Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, the backlog is further evidence of the crisis the SAPS is facing. The main reason for this, he explained, is poor leadership at the top management level.
He said there had been a 24% decline in the police’s ability to solve murders between 2012 and 2020. Now 80% of consequences for a child,” Chauke said.
Lühl said that while the couple – married in South Africa – never experienced any discrimination in Namibia, their predicament began after their son was born in 2019 via a surrogate in South Africa. The twins were born on March 13 also via surrogacy in South Africa. Home Affairs issued birth certificates for the girls listing Lühl and Delgado as parents A and B. The couple launched an urgent court application earlier this week, but it was denied.
“The judge said we had a strong case murders don’t get solved.
“The issue of the laboratories is one of procurement and planning,” he said.
The biggest backlog at the lab is in their biological division, with 111342 cases yet to be attended. The biological division analyses body fluids, DNA and hair samples.
Ballistics, which focuses on firearm analysis has a backlog of 9849 cases, while the chemical division which investigates incidents relating to fires, drugs, chemical-related crimes are backlogged and it would be in the best interest of the children for the travel permits to be granted, but it would be judicial overreach for him to force the Namibian government to issue the permits. The Namibian High Commission in Pretoria did however, inform us on Wednesday that they have accepted our application, and had started the process. But, we still don’t know if it will be successful.”
To add to the couples woes, Namibia has a new minister of Home Affairs. Lühl worries that this may prolong the
by 26679 cases.
Nagdee’s charred remains were discovered in an open field in Honeydew, on the West Rand.
“The backlog has affected the case in a very negative way,” said Zainul Nagdee, Muhammed’s uncle.
Other families are also in limbo as they wait for backlogs to clear.
The family of five-year-old Chantelle Makwena, who was brutally raped and murdered, were told by the prosecutor that the reason the suspect had not been arrested was that there was no reagent at the labs to perform the DNA testing.
The suspect, who was out on bail for another rape case, has since disappeared.